Writing for myself; hoping for sanity, redemption, and mercy. Using the letters on the keyboard as little life preservers.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

The Weird Kids

What ever happened to the Weird kids? Remember those kids we went to elementary school with who always stood out for all the wrong reasons? I was wondering, last evening, whatever happened to Johnny Appletree? He moved to my small town in about the third grade. He was tall, lanky, blonde, and had a beautiful smile under all that filth. His winter coat was about two sizes too small and his clothes were never clean. He was shunned by all the other kids and now I wonder about him. Did he make it? Did he succeed at anything when life started out for him in such a shithole? My heart breaks for him when I think back to that beautiful little boy.
Then there was Nancy and Bonita Price. Nancy was very '60's chic in her awesome recycled retro clothes. Of course as kids, all we could see was that she was poor and couldn't afford new clothes. She was the lucky twin because she had beauty on her side. Bonita, ironically, was not so pretty and not so lucky. She was treated awful because of her lack of grace and the constant comparison to her pretty twin. Where are they now? Did Bonita blossom? Was she the ugly duckling who triumphed as the swan?
What happened to Alicia, the dictionary reading girl? What was she escaping from when she read words and definitions for hours and hours? I mean normal people don't do that, right? There has to be something driving her to make it her life's mission to completely read the dictionary!
I know I was never outwardly mean to these fellow students, but that is little comfort when I look back and see that I still had those thoughts. I still thought them inferior because they were the weird kids. I was a little bit afraid of them, but only because I thought if I were too kind to them that other kids would think I was weird too. So I stayed back, never taunting or teasing, but never befriending either. I think my mom would say I made up for that in middle school and high school when I seemed to have befriended many "weird kids".

But now I wonder about them.
I wonder if they succeeded at whatever it is they wanted in life.
I wonder what they think about their elementary years.
I wonder.

hello

I like to laugh, but even more I like to make the people around me laugh. I like secrets, but I'm only good at keeping the really important ones, so I like sharing secrets even more. I like seeing the good in people, and overlooking their faults. I don't like being the pot that calls the kettle black. I love to read because I love being swept away to another place and time. I like learning new things, I like seeing old things in a new way.